


False Tengu

by TheNightWatcher



Category: End Roll (Video Game), 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drabble Collection, Female Protagonist, Gender Roles, Ghosts, Gods, Like the MC here prefers to sleep, M/M, Multi, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Sleepiness, Spirits, Xenophobia, but not for me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:07:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28004403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNightWatcher/pseuds/TheNightWatcher
Summary: 'A Ghost Queen is unheard of,' The Heavens declare. Especially anyone who clearly hasn't been born here on the mainland!Ah, well, take notes, everyone. There's a first time for everything.
Relationships: Gardenia(?) & Informant (past), Gardenia(?) & Others
Kudos: 7





	1. Appearance

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote some drabbles/One-Shots about Gardenia(?) wandering about this new world. She will be referred to as 'Gardenia' since a question mark in the name is degrading against the eyes.
> 
> This is a slight AU of Heaven's Official Blessing. The main point of this AU is the fact the four 'Calamities' first appear during a Ghost Fight that happens once every 10 thousand years. They then go off to make proper names for themselves. It's like a show for the Ghost World, sorta. The Heavens take slight note of them, which allows each survivor a chance to shake the mortal world in a method of their choice.
> 
> Reputation is important.
> 
> ...Please no spoilers, I haven't finished the novel yet. TvT

" _This is my last visit." A boy with blond hair and green eyes stands over her, hands in his pockets and a smile so cruel._

_The small girl on the floor looks up, rubbing her eye to drive off the exhaustion of sustaining their fragile world._

" _You did well." He tells her, smile wide and mocking as always. "And you were always a pleasure to speak with."_

_She squints at him._

" _Farewell, Aware One."_

* * *

Her awareness came back in droves of unknown voices. The language is not English, she knows, but translation is not a problem for an artificial wisp, like her. It's easy enough to curl up into the ball her consciousness desires.

"What's a little girl doing here?"

Hmm? Is she in a visible form then? Tiresome.

"For power. Everyone here wants to become the strongest." Someone declares, and the girl at four-foot-nine ponders the strange statement.

Her eyes blearily open against her better judgment, peering past her long white hair. Her yellow dress is still clean, although a bit dusty from the ground.

There are hundreds of dead people around her.

Gardenia blinks once, twice, and wonders how she's still existing.

Who are these people? Not like her, not at all. They seem whole and full, colorful, and real.

"Awake?" A man nearby speaks, and she looks up to a man with long black hair staring down at her like a bug. "Then you better scram, Ghost. Things are about to get violent. This is no place for children." He says as if she's an annoyance for merely appearing.

Gardenia stared at him for a while longer, before deciding it was better to curl back upon the ground. Her eyes fall closed and she attempts to drift to sleep.

"Why do I try?" The man sighs, Gardenia ignores him.

A ghost shrieks fury.

Gardenia isn't watching as the crowd erupts into violence and causes of death.

She doesn't have to open her eyes to know everyone present was killing one another. Somehow. Gardenia is certain everyone here is dead. There were people holding their own heads, some without eyeballs, and even a couple with floating arms. Gardenia would rather not deal with any of that. Sleep is better.

There's a rush of wind, and Gardenia whips out her hand in a lash of attack toward the Fool who decided to attack her in the middle of a nap. There's a crunch and shriek as her metal weapon slams them away with distance.

"...Holy shit." Someone rasps under the ruckus, and her eyes slowly open to dozens of challengers running over for a challenge. Most of them have sharp weapons or destructive forces by their side.

Gardenia flares to life with fury at her fingertips. She swiftly stands as her eyes narrow.

How dare these jerks, to keep trying to attack her despite the many warnings?

Gardenia readies her frying pan, eyes blank.

She'll _end_ them.


	2. Rotten Jam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gardenia is not a one-trick pony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reading Book 3 makes me glad I made this into an AU.

_Three were three Aware Ones in a single Dream World._

_In this case, their identities were Gardenia, the Boy of Mock, and the world's Dreamer._

_They are the most powerful, the most prime, and utter monsters in battle. There was no one who could defeat them, except perhaps the creators of this world. All because of this, the girl does not leave her home. For both her own protection and the desire to stay still for hours at a time._

_The Boy of Mock visits once again._

" _Gardenia? Are you sleeping again? How curious. Must you always sleep, or do you wake up every other hour?" The boy in black and red smiles, and keeps smiling._

_No response._

" _Ah, the cold shoulder I see." He begins to muse about the weather regardless._

_Gardenia listens, lulled back to sleep by his drawl of words._

* * *

Ghosts either fade or disappear into wisps of smoke. Does this mean they've left this plane of existence forever?

Gardenia stares at the blood on her frying pan and gently rubs the metal on her sundress. Her clothes are already dirty, what's another stain?

The clearing is practically empty. Just about everyone is gone, slaughtered by another or taken out by their own hand. It was a terrible show, Gardenia hated it. Senseless violence was always something she had disliked. There would've been no need to hit back if they simply left her alone.

None of them left her alone once they realized she had the potential to be an actual threat.

She ceases movement, staring at the reflective surface of her metal pan.

The very few remaining ghosts are staring at her. Analyzing her. Not an inch of movement is achieved. They haven't stopped staring ever since they realized there was an outlier with them.

Gardenia feels as if there are Nightmares eying her up and down, terrible creatures who could wipe one's existence with a lure of their disciple words.

"Stupid Foreigner," She hears, sharp and full of loathing. An unknown voice.

Gardenia doesn't look up.

"Are you an _idiot?_ What makes you think you could ever rival one of _us?"_ One of them sneers.

"Dunno." An honest response. The others seem somewhat interested in that reply.

"Dun...No?" As if the term was odd, and perhaps it was to them. "What the Hell do you mean," The stranger begins to snarl. "You walk in here and _sleep,_ attempt to become great-Any Stupid Foreigners should just eat shit and die!"

Gardenia's Dream Host had been raised in America. This place was far from the Western Lands, she could tell. "I'd rather cook." She tells him, staring at the frying pan's reflective sheen, and watches his expression darken into something much more dangerous.

Hm.

He launches at her, and she uses her frying pan as a skate-board, sliding away with the smooth ground and smoother metal.

"Come here, You _brat!_ I'll tear you to shreds! Feed you to the dogs! Stupid beings like you-"

Gardenia no longer wants to be here any longer.

She easily dives to the side and dashes off.

"YOU WON'T ESCAPE."

But she does.

All bark, no bite, truly.


	3. Search and Nap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gardenia wanders, aimless, and without reason.
> 
> This world isn't made to hold something like her.
> 
> She knows.
> 
> And so, she walks.

_The Boy Who Mocks shows up at least once a day._

" _Do you ever wonder what it's like to exist?" He sits at the table in her home, tapping at the glass of eyeballs in the corner. "To lead a life, experience the world, gain friends, and make something of yourself?"  
_

_Gardenia puffs a breath, curling further into a ball on her kitchen floor. She could feel the growing strain of the Dream World, a place once beautiful beginning to drape and rot._

_The day it collapses is the day everyone but the Dreamer ceases to exist._

" _Is it foolish to have wanted something like that?"_

_Gardenia doesn't know._

_"How cruel, for us to be created with a terrible fate." His emerald eyes of envy simmer. "How cruel, indeed."_

* * *

The Boy Who Mocks had been an achiever for something he could never have.

Gardenia was not. Even as she stomps her way through a swamp, clothes dirty and shoes ruined, the girl did not desire exploration or safety.

She only wanted to truly rest. How is she still able to think, feel, and _know?_

The fog is thick. The little girl in dirtied yellow continues forward.

There's a child's giggle, Gardenia does not stop moving.

She ceases movement when the swamp swallows half her feet.

"What's this?" The ghastly creature in the fog purrs. She can locate its essence through the sheer malice and laughing mirth it radiates. "A lost little ghost, in my domain? Oh, Child, you must be so scared...Don't worry. I could put you out of your misery." It offers, and inches closer, a rotten maw opening to munch her neck and up.

Gardenia rams her frying pain through its head. It screams before she grabs the top half, and pulls upward while pressing down.

She breaks its jaw and listens to it screech.

With a flick of an arm, the creature burns.

Gardenia cannot feel the warmth.

The swamp is suddenly easy to move around in. She settles by a tree full of vines and decides to take a long sleep in the tree. Gardenia wriggles until she is wrapped by its brilliant stretch of branches and thick lines of sprouted greenery.

She is neither ghost nor human, nor spirit.

However, she is no longer an Aware One, either.

For now, Gardenia simply _is._

And sleep, she will.

(And hundreds of years later, when the swamp dries, and people begin to take settlement, there sprouts a rumor a vengeful spirit will strike you down, should you attempt to cut down the Weeping Willow tree.

Many foolish people have tried. For fame, glory, or merely because it was a large tree that was old.

They all burned to death, screaming apologies until they were nothing but ash)

Gardenia sleeps.

Sleeps, until she wakes up to the presence of troublesome people with the aura of a righteous light.

**Author's Note:**

> Some End Roll players don't even know who Gardenia(?) is. She's Gardenia's 'twin', but aware that everything in their world is a dream meant for the Main Character (Russell.) She only appears if you take Gardenia with you on your party.
> 
> No one really writes for her...So here we are!
> 
> She's a Menace, truly. Definitely, like Informant, who's just as brutal in personality.


End file.
